How to Find Out When Your Gmail Account was Created

How long have you been using Gmail? Ever wonder what the exact date your account was created is? You can look for the initial welcome email all new accounts receive but what if you deleted that message?

Fortunately, there is another method to find out the exact date your account was created. This tutorial works with both standard Gmail accounts and Google Apps Mail accounts.

Many commenters have reported that this method simply reads the date of the oldest available email. I can confirm this on my account created on 5/10/07. I just deleted all emails from that date and it changes.However, this method works on my alternate account created on 10/18/08. Gmail search reports no emails around this date. Some sources report that this only works on accounts created after 2007, which would explain why this method does not work on my 2007 account.

If you know your account was created 2007 or earlier, does this method work for you (you will have to permanently delete your oldest emails to check)? If your account was created after 2007, does this method work for you (use the search function to check if there are any emails from the date you get)? Please share with us in the comments.

First, head to Gmail Settings. Then click on the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

Select the first option for POP Download: Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded). This option is selected by default so if you didn’t tweak any settings in the past, this option is probably already selected.

Click Save Changes.

Return to the settings for POP Download. At the top of the section, there should be something that reads: Status: POP is enabled for all mail that has arrived since xx/xx/xx.

In place of the xx/xx/xx should be the exact date your Gmail account was created.

As highlighted in this screenshot, my Gmail account was created on May 10, 2007.

When did you create your Gmail account? Have another method to find out the account creation date? Share with us in the comments.

Please note that this only works if you actually have access to the account. It is a good idea to record this date in a safe place somewhere as this date is very useful when recovering your password in the event that your account is compromised or you lose access to secondary recovery options.

By Brian Yang Brian is the co-founder of TechAirlines. He is a developer currently focusing on mobile and web development. He is currently a sophomore at Stony Brook University, majoring in Computer Science.

I know for a fact I created my gmail account somewhere between 2005 and 2007 … anyhow, using the method above, it gives the date 1/8/2010 which happens to be the datestamp on the oldest email still in the system for my account (found it in my sent folder).

Chood

Thank you.

Ariel rienstra

Thank you soo much. This really helped me

Lucas Feijo

I have emails way older than 2008, which is my POP date. This doesn’t work. :(

http://www.techairlines.com/ Brian Yang

Thanks for reporting this.

Skip Patterson

I tried this and when I go back to POP settings it just says POP in enabled for all email but doesn’t give a date. May have changed since this article was written.

http://www.techairlines.com/ Brian Yang

Thanks for reporting this. I can confirm that this date is no longer shown on my Google Apps account, although it’s still there on my normal Gmail account.

I created my gmail account sometime in 2007. For some reason I can only retrieve retrieve mail from 2011. Can anyone tell me where the past emails have gone and how can I find them?

http://www.techairlines.com/ Brian Yang

Are you accessing your mail from within the Gmail web interface? If so, older emails should be there unless you deleted them. Try searching for a time range without any search terms.

Tom Stright

1/21/05 is when mine was created and yes this works for me.

FreestyleIM

Made mine on September 14, 2012.

madashell

dont work

madashell

this does not work, the option to transfer is not there.

alecia carr

Hi my name is Alecia I have a gmail account and I Also have a Facebook Account associated connect to it I am looking to get rid of the whole thing completely because it’s old as of January 21st 2012 and plus I have a iCloud email and Facebook